Zawi ben Ziri ibn Manad al-Ṣanhājah, 1st Zirid Emir of Granada

Zāwī b. Zīrī b. Manād al-Ṣanhād̲j̲ī, the Berber founder of an independent taifa (ṭāʾifa [see mulūk al-ṭawāʾif. 2]) or principality in Granada at the time of the dismemberment of the Umayyad caliphate of Cordova and its first ruler (403-10/1013-19).

The Zīrids, who belonged to the Talkāta, the most important tribe of the Ṣanhād̲j̲a [q.v.], had settled in the area between Ifrīḳiya and the central Mag̲h̲rib. Zāwī and his followers, including the two sons of his brother Māksan, were among the prominent Berbers ¶ in North Africa who were invited by the ʿĀmirid ḥād̲j̲ib of Cordova, ʿAbd al-Malik al-Muẓaffar [q.v.], to join him in his perennial campaigns against the Christians of northern Spain. Al-Muẓaffar’s father al-Manṣūr, however, had his own misgivings about Zāwī, who was reputed to be cunning, shrewd and troublesome.

After the fall of the ʿĀmirids and the outbreak of civil strife in al-Andalus, Zāwī is said to have contemplated returning to North Africa but changed his mind when the people of Elvira sought his protection. In fact, the Zīrids played a decisive role in the course of events, and it was largely thanks to Zāwī that the Umayyad Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn was proclaimed caliph (Rabīʿ I 400/November 1008). If Zāwī had really intended to leave al-Andalus, one may well ask why he had stayed behind for eight years and taken such an active part (Ibn Ḥayyān describes Zāwī as “the spark that kindled the civil war after the ʿĀmirid dynasty”) in events which secured for his people the rich province of Elvira.

It was the Berbers who had forced Sulaymān to divide between them the southern districts of al-Andalus and, consequently, the province of Elvira fell to Zāwī and his kinsmen. It is most unlikely that Zāwī’s arrival in Elvira was, as claimed by the last Zīrid amīr of Granada (Tibyān, 59, tr. 45), in response to an invitation from the Elvirans, who had recently suffered so much at his hands. The Elvirans probably had no say in the matter. It is more likely that, prior to Sulaymān’s re-entry into Cordova (403/1013), Zāwī had already established himself in Elvira and Sulaymān had to accept that as a fait accompli.

Aware of the bitter hostility of the Andalusians to the Berbers, Zāwī suggested that the people of Elvira move to the nearby and more defensible mountain fortress of Granada. Soon after, the Andalusians, led by the newly-proclaimed Umayyad caliph al-Murtaḍā, launched an assault but were routed just outside Granada, almost six years after Zāwī had settled there. The Zīrids’ victory was swift and decisive, thanks mainly to the defection from al-Murtaḍā’s ranks of the ʿĀmirid K̲h̲ayrān of Almeria and of al-Mund̲h̲ir b. Yaḥyā of Saragossa.

Shortly after his victory, however, Zāwī surprisingly decided to return to Ifrīḳiya, prompted no doubt by his keen awareness of the Andalusians’ hostility and their numerical superiority. Moreover, he aspired to the throne of Ḳayrawān, whose occupant at the time was an eight-year-old Zīrid, al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs [q.v.], a great grandson of Zāwī’s brother Buluggīn. Ibn Ḥayyān also mentions Zāwī’s obsessive fear that the Zanāta Berbers, traditional foes of the Ṣanhād̲j̲a, might join forces with the Andalusians against the Zīrids, hence Zāwī’s description of the Zanāta as “the real enemies” (Ibn Bassām, D̲h̲ak̲h̲īra, i/1, 402; Ibn al-K̲h̲aṭīb, Aʿmāl, 131).

Zāwī, who was born and brought up in North Africa, must have felt isolated and insecure throughout his 18-year sojourn in al-Andalus, and it is not surprising that his thoughts should turn to his native land. Furthermore, the situation in North Africa had completely changed since his arrival in al-Andalus in 392/1002; the Fāṭimid caliphs had moved from Ifrīḳiya to Egypt; the Zanāta ruler of Fās, Zīrī b. ʿAṭiyya, could no longer count on Umayyad support; and the internecine struggle, raging since 409/1014 between the Zīrids of Ifrīḳiya [q.v.] and their kinsmen the Ḥammādids of al-Ḳalʿa [q.v.], had exhausted both sides.

Zāwī left Almuñecar (al-Munakkab) for Ifrīḳiya some ¶ time in 410/1019-20, with the consent of al-Muʿizz who is said to have come out in person to greet him. At least initially, Zāwī’s kinsmen in Ḳayrawān seemed to welcome his return, since they badly needed someone of his age and calibre to head the Zīrid house and fill the vacuum left by the death of al-Muʿizz’s father. There were those amongst al-Muʿizz’s wazīrs, however, who regarded “the accession of the child al-Muʿizz…., over whom they had control, preferable to surrendering power to a shrewd character like Zāwī, over whom they had not a scrap of authority. Someone was therefore hired to administer poison to Zāwī, who died in that country” (Tibyān, 64, tr. 51).

Ibn Ḥayyān says that Zāwī died in Ḳayrawān of the plague but does not give the date of his death; nor does amīr ʿAbd Allāh in the Tibyān.

(Amin Tibi)

Bibliography

1. Sources. ʿAbd Allāh b. Buluggīn, Tibyān, ed. and annotated A.T. Tibi, Rabat 1995, 57-64, Eng. tr. Leiden 1986, 44-51

anon., Mafāk̲h̲ir al-Barbar, ed. E. Lévi-Provençal, Rabat 1934

Ibn Bassām al-S̲h̲antarīnī, D̲h̲ak̲h̲īra, ed. I. ʿAbbas, i, iv/1 Beirut 1975-9

Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī, Bayān, ed. Colin and Lévi-Provençal, i, iii, Beirut 1980

Ibn K̲h̲aldūn, ʿIbar, iv, vi, Būlāḳ 1867

Ibn al-K̲h̲aṭīb, Aʿmāl, ed. Lévi-Provençal, Beirut 1956, 227-9

idem, Iḥāṭa, ed. M.A. Inān, i, Cairo 1973, 513-17.

2. Studies. Lévi-Provençal, Hist. Esp. mus., ii

H.R. Idrīs, La Berbérie orientale sous les Zīrīdes, i, Paris 1959

idem, Les Zīrīdes d’Espagne, in And., xxix (1964), 39-137

A. Handler, The Zirids of Granada, Miami 1974

C.E. Bosworth, The New Islamic dynasties, Edinburgh 1996, 17, no. 6.

Citation Tibi, Amin. " Zāwī b. Zīrī." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 30 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-isla...>

Zawi ben Ziri as-Sanhajah . Chief Berber dynasty of Zirí ,founder of the Taifa of Granada and their first king to the throne between 1013 and 1019.

Zawi was a General's Son Fatimid Caliphate Manad ben Ziri , born in Achir where his father was lord after, ben Ziri Manad, and his brother, Buluggin ben Ziri , serve as a mercenary general orders Almanzor , the hajib the Caliph of Cordoba whose death on August 12, 1002 (25 Ramadan 392) civil war breaks out in al-Andalus in which participate Zawi sweeping Medina Azahara in 1011 and after winning in 1013 with Cora of Elvira , whose capital was the city of the same name Elvira Medina , founded the Taifa of Granada will be his first Emir (King).

The city of Elvira was in a construction defense so complicated Zawi ben Ziri decided to move the capital of a Taifa kingdom Garnata Medina , the current Granada .

In 1019, Granada Zawi left with the intention to take over the government of the North African region of Ifriquiya from which he hailed as their king had died and the heir was a minor. This erroneous decision earned him the throne Granada loss at the hands of his nephew ben Habús Maksan and death, and that he was poisoned in Algiers by their king, the Zirid also Mahdia .

The Zirids were rulers of kingdoms in Ifriquiya, Maghreb, Granada and Malaga. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zawi_ben_Ziri